Court Takes The Lead

February 04, 1989

The Virginia Supreme Court may end up saving the General Assembly from further embarrassment over the legislature's lack of fortitude and principle: The court is considering banning state judges from belonging to exclusive clubs.

General Assembly members have had the chance this session to take that action themselves. But so far, lawmakers have been weak-kneed about doing anything more than agreeing to ask prospective judges and those up for reappointment to disclose any club memberships so they could be examined on a case-by-case basis. That's tantamount to doing nothing.

If the court adds a clause to its Canons of Judicial Conduct - and that "if" is probably more like "when" - lawmakers won't have the issue to waffle on anymore. Judicial hopefuls and those who want to remain judges will have to give up their clubs or give up any chance at the bench.

The end result will be the correct one, the only fair one, but it's a shame it won't come from the General Assembly. Legislators could have led the way on this painful issue; instead, they have repeatedly ducked it. Their attitude reflects a backward, discriminatory philosophy that has stigmatized the South for years. Apparently, that attitude still lives in our statehouse.

But make no mistake about this: With or without the General Assembly's support, Virginia's future judges will not be members of clubs that exclude people because they are black, or Jewish, or for other reasons that are wrong. This is a threshold issue and no amount of ignoring it or opposing it will make it disappear.

After all the racial gains this country and this state have made, it is very late in the day for such a simple issue to cause so much controversy. None- theless, it remains a simple issue: Discrimination is wrong.